Currently, images for video and the World Wide Web (“web”) are sometimes created using an artwork program and then exported to a video editing program or an application development environment. The usual manner is for an artist to create one or more pieces of artwork on a document and then to crop the document, thereby defining an area that includes the artwork therein. The crop area is then exported.
Oftentimes, the post-export format will have significant differences from the original art editing program format. One such difference is the notion of aspect ratio in video-formats. Aspect ratio is a ratio of the width of the viewing area to the length of the viewing area. Aspect ratios other than 1:1 produce what are called “non-square” pixels in video applications. Art editing programs, on the other hand, usually measure length in terms of abstract “points.” It can often be a problem for a user in an art editing application to know the size of the crop area in device-dependent pixels in these applications. This can lead to confusion, especially for novice users. Even for professionals it can be tedious to do calculations on a number of points to determine device-dependent pixels.
Another difference between a post-export format and an original art editing format is the notion of safe areas in video formats. Most television sets, especially older models, cut off the outer edges of the video screen. Therefore, any image, be it video or graphics, that falls outside of what's call the “Action Safe” area of the screen will tend to be cut off by the television. This is approximately a 10% border around all four sides of the actual video edge. The “Title Safe” area is approximately a 20% inward area from all four side of the outer video edge, and it represents a recommended distance from the edge for text, ensuring readability thereof for all television sets.
Current systems do not provide a convenient way for an artist to know or see special formatting properties of the artwork. For instance, current systems may include a document-level ruler that sits at the top and sides of the document workspace and is indexed in points. However, a user generally must glance at a crop area and then again at the ruler to know crop area size in points. Having to glance twice may make it hard for an artist to comprehend the size information because double-glancing can break the artist's concentration and because the size information is not spatially associated with the crop area. Further, size in points does not necessarily indicate size in device-dependent units (e.g., pixels).
Additionally, some prior art systems provide a document-level indication of video safe areas. However, a crop area that is a sub-area of the document will not benefit from the document-level safe area indicators.